


Day One Hundred Seventy || Total Silence

by 365daysofsasuhina



Series: 365 Days of SasuHina 2019 [170]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Historical, Blood, Death, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 06:38:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19290265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/365daysofsasuhina/pseuds/365daysofsasuhina
Summary: A ghost trapped between planes can find no rest, haunted by the ever-present silence. But then, in the distance...he can hear the music play...





	Day One Hundred Seventy || Total Silence

How long has he wallowed in total silence?

On and on he wanders, never finding what he seeks. In his wake, no birds call. No branches snap. No breezes rustle the leaves of the trees.

It’s almost maddening…!

No longer does he count how many years he’s traveled, seeking his vengeance. Part of him wonders if he will ever find it...or if he’s simply doomed to walk a ghost along the plane of the mortals for the rest of time.

Even now, he still wears his armor, dons his swords. Were any to see him, they’d be taken back to the time of the samurai. A time not yet forgotten, and yet fading further and further into the past.

Because of his grizzly death, Uchiha Sasuke remains. A ghost, a goryō: a spirit seeking revenge for his slow, agonizing death. Of course...by now, it’s unlikely his aggressors still live. He may have no direct path to his vengeance.

...but there are always other ways. If he can find their lands, he can still ravage them. Bring a plague, start fires, beget war...he can take water away for a drought, or drown them in a flood. The all-consuming need for revenge burns in him like a flame, only able to extinguish once it has burned all that wronged him. Only once those who took everything from him suffer a similar fate can he be allowed to rest.

So, until then...he lingers, a restless spirit full of malice, anger, and hate.

And still he goes in silence.

Following a path overgrown - forgotten and unused - he halts. In the distance, he can see lights amidst the dark of night. A village…? No...a compound of some kind. Likely a clan...perhaps of samurai, like himself?

...could it be they who battled him so long ago…?

Form flaring at the possibility, he keeps on, a hand resting along the hilt of his blade. He may yet be close…!

Descending from the woods he roams, he walks among fields toward the largest structure, clearly a manor of some kind. Pale in the moonlight, he simply shifts through obstacles: the outer wall, and that of the garden.

But just as he steps through, something holds him in his tracks.

...a sound.

So startled is he after so long in silence, Sasuke’s eyes widen in shock, completely still. The first true sound he’s heard in...far too long. And not just any sound: the pluck of a koto string.

His ghostly gaze scans the yard...and then finds the source. Though the hour is late, a young woman sits along the engawa, the instrument laid before her. Picks along her thumb, index, and middle fingers, she hovers her hands over the strings.

He stares, unseen.

She’s a classic beauty: long, dark hair, straight as a blade and cut over her brows. A lilac kimono rests over a pale, womanly form. And even from this distance, it’s hard to miss the pale shine of her eyes in the moonlight.

...none of his enemies had eyes like those.

Then, slowly...she starts to play. It’s a melancholy song, legato and smooth. It’s almost...reminiscent, in a way. But he’s certain he’s never heard it before. Yet it reminds him of a time long gone: of his own clan’s compound, the musicians there, the dancers...how they would revel in their victories over their enemies.

...he wonders if any of his kin remain. If the Uchiha banner is no more, or if somewhere, one of his bloodline still walks.

Though he arrived determined to scour the place for his enemies...Sasuke finds he can’t bring himself to move: trapped like a beast lulled by a maiden’s song. Slowly - ever so slowly - he finds himself...calming. Soothing. Cooling. Until, eventually, he carefully shifts his position to sit along the grass, utterly silent despite the visual rustling and settling of his armor.

On the concert goes for uncounted minutes. All the while, the woman hangs her head forlornly over her instrument. Almost like she’s mourning something...or perhaps someone. It begets a kind of curiosity in the ghost. Who she is. What weighs upon her so. As noted, she’s beautiful - exactly the kind of woman - in life - he would have considered for a bride.

...a life stolen from him…

But before the fires can grow again within him, silence falls again. It seems she’s finished her song. Leaning back, she sits in the quiet, gaze caught out over the moonlit garden.

He, in turn, watches her.

After a time, she moves to stand...and something stirs in him. In a blink, his ethereal form appears before her instrument.

Gasping, she leans from him...but Sasuke doesn’t notice. Instead, he looks over the wood and strings. A spectral hand ghosts over the silk, but earns no sound.

“...how I’ve missed the lull of music…”

Staring in shock, barely daring to breathe, she watches him, unblinking.

“...I thank you, my lady, for your serenade. It brings me a calm I’ve lacked. Though vengeance burns within me...this settles that beast somehow.”

She can give no reply, too wary.

“...would you play again? Perhaps...I can find respite in your song.”

With that, he flickers again, settling back atop the grass at her fore, a hand braced atop a folded knee.

For a moment longer she stares...and then slowly moves to acquiesce. Picks still in place, she seems to rattle her brain for a tune before playing.

That same melancholy calm washes over him. Eyes closed, Sasuke lets his head crane back. In truth...he’s tired. So tired. Over and over he’s walked the same circles. If only he could rest...he only wants to rest…

Before him, the maiden keeps up her song, eyes flickering to him. All know of the battles that once soaked the land with blood. But never has she seen a ghost of those lost lives...this  _ must _ be one of them. Doomed to wander in purgatory, too consumed by anger to rest. But...maybe… 

Concentrating, she decides to try to play his soul to rest. Opening her mouth, she begins to croon soft words alongside the strings’ notes.

Sasuke’s eyes slowly open, watching.

Under the moonlight they sit: performer and audience. She laments in her lyrics, trying to capture a feeling of somber peace: urging him to release his clutched ties.

But the song cannot last forever...and she lets it fade into silence.

Sasuke, for a moment, remains idle. “...a beautiful tune. It reminds me...that there are still beautiful things in this world. Even if I must leave them behind...at least I can find solace in that.”

Around him, his pale blue aura begins to fragment, drifting like embers from a dying fire.

“...thank you, my lady. Perhaps I will find my rest at last.”

A pause, and then, “...I am Hyūga Hinata, my lord. I am happy to be of service.”

He bows his head. “...Uchiha Sasuke. Thank you...for breaking the silence one last time.” With a shimmer, he dissipates into a shower of spectral sparks.

Still unsure if such visions were real, Hinata stares at the now-empty garden. 

“...sayonara…”

**Author's Note:**

> Guh, late, as usual...which also means this isn't as fleshed out as I wanted Dx I had the concept earlier today, but life got in the way and then I was low on time without knowing what creature I wanted Sasuke to be. Settled on the revenge ghost, because...of course xD
> 
> I didn't have much time to look into the ghost concept much, so I'm not sure this makes 100% sense or is completely accurate, but...I just didn't have the time to research too much. As per usual. But! Hopefully it was enjoyable nonetheless~
> 
> For now tho, it's veeery late, and I need sleep! Thanks for reading~


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